< snip >

>>If it's some individual or group going from door-to-door, then I tend to react a little more. My usual response is either
>>
>>1. Thank you but I don't celebrate Christmas or,
>>2. Thank you. I hope you have/had a Happy Chanukah
>>
>>followed by immediate door closing.
>
>At least you know the guy who tries to sell you vacuum cleaners is just doing that for a living.

So are many of the guys selling you religion. It's just that a lot of them make a far better living than the vacuum cleaner guy. The vacuum cleaner guy is generally more honest.

You know, I'm still waiting for a good explanation of why 1 God is better than 100 Gods. I think the ancient Romans/Greeks/Norse/Chinese/Native Americans (choose one) were far more realistic. Each God had his/her own department to look after. I've always had trouble with the idea of "Jack of all trades, Master of all" concept. The old Gods didn't have to spread themselves so thin, and at least they were simply given human traits.

None of the hypocrasy of "God loves us" ( a very human trait) when something good happens, and "We can't understand the mind of God" (otherworldy traits?) when something bad happens.

They also didn't exist just for our benefit (and we just for theirs). They did their thing, we did ours.

Beyond the obvious differences in the specs we used to create our Gods then, and the ones we used to create our current God, I really don't see any difference in belief system. We laugh at the ancients for their beliefs, while holding basically the same sort of beliefs ourselves.